Who Were the Vikings? A look into the Society and Culture of the Viking Age Week 2: May 1st, 2015

AM 113 a or b fol, a page from a 17th-century copy of the 12th-century manuscript of Íslendingabók Arnamagnæan institute, Reykjavík, Iceland

This Week •Language, Literature and Runes

•Scandinavian written sources for the Viking Age •Runes and Runic Monuments •Oral Literature •Post Viking Age writing •Sagas

Written Sources

Konungsbók (Codex Regius) of the Poetic Edda, 2nd half of the 13th century. Árni Magnússon Institute / Culture House, Reykjavík, Iceland.

Scandinavian Sources •Scandinavians start writing in Latin script, using codices (books), only when Christianity is introduced. •Though this happens to varying degrees of success at various times in various places, a convenient catch-all date for conversion would be the year 1000. •But: communication with Latinised Christian neighbours of course occurs before then: the Scandinavians do not live in a cultural vacuum disconnected from Europe (cf. contact with the Roman world during the “Roman Iron Age”). •Even so: before the advent of Latin script, Scandinavians are not illiterate!

Language •Old Norse: the language of the Vikings •Ancestor of all the modern Scandinavian languages and dialects, including Faroese and Icelandic •Related to other older Germanic languages, like Old English, Old High German, and Gothic. •Two main branches: West Norse (Norway, Iceland, the British Isles and the North Atlantic expansion) and East Norse (Denmark, Sweden, the Baltic and the Eastern expansion)

Language •Runic inscriptions and all post-Viking Age Scandinavian writing is in Old Norse. •Editions of Old Norse material usually use a standardised editorial version. •However, in the post-VA medieval period, regional dialects are already starting to differentiate Old Norse into what will become the Scandinavian languages. •(Note that some Modern Scandinavian languages are still mostly mutually intelligible in writing, and in some cases, even in speech)

Runes and Runic Monuments •Scandinavians and other Germanic peoples use an alphabetic writing system known as Runes. •Runes are a set of angular characters, likely meant to be carved on hard surfaces, rather than written. They are best suited to expressing the sounds of Germanic languages (Old Norse). •Many Runic alphabets exist, in many parts of the Germanic world, including the Continent, Scandinavia, and Anglo-Saxon England. These change over time and display some internal variation.

Runes and Runic Monuments •The runic alphabet is called the “FUTHARK” based on its first six characters: F U Þ A R K. •In Old Norse (and Old English) written in Latin Script, the “th” sounds are represented by “thorn” Þ/þ and “eth” Ð/ð (still used in Icelandic, for example). The “thorn” character is derived from a rune.

The “older” fuþark •Very early, used between c. AD 100 to c. AD 700 (so predating the Viking Age) in various parts of the Germanic world, including the continent. •Very few inscriptions.

The “younger” fuþark •Appears in Scandinavia after AD 700. These are the true Viking Age runes. There is much variety in their script, but hare are two examples:

The medieval runes •Appears in Scandinavia around AD 1200. The younger fuþark has been expanded to express more sounds in the evolving Scandinavian languages, and also as an influence of Latin script. There is little consistency, and the example below is a conventional approximation.

Uses of Runes in the Viking Age •Memorial monuments •Ownership marks •“Official” documents (e.g. coins, legal judgment on the Forsa ring) •Graffiti

Runic ring from Forsa, Sweden (c. 800 AD)

Stones at Jelling, Denmark

Moesgård Museum, Denmark

Lund, Sweden

Lund, Sweden Högby, Sweden

Västra Strö, Sweden

Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden

Gotlands Fornsal Museum, Visby, Island of Gotland, Sweden

Ramsund, Södermanland, Sweden

Rök, Sweden

Greenland (National Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark)

Irish reliquary casket with Runic ownership mark (National Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark)

Bryggens Museum, Bergen, Norway

Medieval runes

14th C. (?) bell, National Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark

Baptismal font from Småland, Sweden (Historiska Museet, Stockholm)

Bryggens Museum, Bergen, Norway

Bryggens Museum, Bergen, Norway

Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

Graffiti! •Piraeus Lion (originally in Piraeus, the port of Athens). Late VA-style (11th C.?) graffiti.

(Copy in the Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden)

Graffiti! •Hagia Sophia (Byzantium, now Istanbul, Turkey)

The inscription is partially illegible and difficult to date, but the name “Halfdan” is legible.

Large stone, Jelling, Denmark

Jelling Museum, Jelling, Denmark

Harald Blutooth’s Stone (Jelling II) Transliteration of runes: haraltr : kunukR : baþ : kaurua / kubl : þausi : aft : kurmfaþursin / aukaft : þáurui : muþur : sina : sa / haraltr [:] ias : sáR: uan : tanmaurk / ala : auk : nuruiak / : auk t(á)ni [:] (karþi) [:] kristná Old Norse Reconstruction (compare with Old West Norse normalised version in the textbook, pp. 87-88) Haraldr konungr bað görva kumbl þausi aft Gorm faður sinn auk aft Þórví móður sína. Sá Haraldr es sér vann Danmörk alla auk Norveg au dani gærði kristna. English Translation King Harald ordered these memorials to be made after Gorm, his father, and after Thorvi (Thyra), his mother. That Harald who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians. Source: A New Introduction to Old Norse . Part II: Reader, 4th edition, ed. by Anthony Faulkes (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 2007), p. 226

H

H

A H

A H

A H R

A H R

A H R A

A H R A

A H R A L

A H R A L

A H R A L T

A H R A L T

A H R A L T R

Oral Literature •How do we know about literature that wasn’t written down?

•Things like laws, which had to pre-exist their written form. •Poetry: complicated metre and rules, written in later manuscripts but also on Runic monuments. •Linguistic clues: the evolution of language before its written form.

“Eddic” Poetry •Refers to poetry contained in the “Elder” or “Poetic Edda”, an anonymous compilation of texts referring to mythology and worldly wisdom. •Mostly contained in the 13th century Icelandic manuscript known as the Codex Regius (Konungsbók) •Several different poems. Their content and linguistic features sometimes point towards a very early composition.

“Eddic” Poetry •Some examples from the poem Hávamál, or “Words of the High One”, supposed to be advice given by the god Odin to a mortal man.

(Stanza 52) Mikit eitt Not only large gifts skala manni gefa: should one give: opt kaupir sér í litlu lof; often one buys praise for himself with little; með hálfum hleif with half a loaf ok með hǫllu keri and with a tilted cup fekk ek mér félaga. I got myself a comrade. Translation: Teva Vidal

“Eddic” Poetry

(Stanza 3) Elds er þǫrf Fire is needed þeims inn er kominn for him who has come inside ok á kné kalinn; and is cold to the knee; matar ok váða food and clothes er manni þǫrf, are needed for the man þeim er hefir um fjall farit. who has travelled in the mountains. (Stanza 4) Vatns er þǫrf Water is needed þeim er til verðar kǫmr, for him who has come to a meal, þerru ok þjóðlaðar, towels and a friendly invitation, góðs um œðis, a good disposition, ef sér geta mætti, if he can get it, orðs ok endrþǫgu. conversation and silence in return. Translations: Teva Vidal

Skaldic Poetry •Poetry written by skalds, poets of great skill. •Written along very difficult rules of metre, alliteration, internal rhyme and use of figurative speech. •Especially “kennings”: metaphoric or periphrastic constructions to refer to objects, creatures or concepts. •A modern “kenning”: the Ship of the Desert.

Skaldic Poetry

•An example written by Harald Sigurðarson, “Hardradi”, King of Norway, supposedly shortly before his death at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, 1066:

Faithful falcon-field goddess commanded this of me: not to creep behind the shield In the noise of weapons. The necklace-support told me to hold my helmet-base high Where valkyrie-ice and skulls Meet in the clash of metal.

(falcon-field = arm, its goddess = woman; noise of weapons = battle; necklace support = woman; helmet-base = head; valkyrie-ice = sword; clash of metal = battle) Translation: Judith Jesch

Skaldic Poetry

•An example attributed to Egill Skallagrimsson, hero of Egil’s Saga, supposedly in the 10th century, encouraging his fellow Vikings during an attack on Lund:

Reddener of the wolf’s tooth, let’s hold gleaming swords high, we’ve got deeds to perform In valley-fish relief. Every man up to Lund, As quickly as he can! Let’s chant the song of spears before the sun goes down.

(reddener of the wolf’s tooth = warrior; valley-fish = snake, its relief = summertime; song of spears = battle, to chant it = to do battle) Translation: Judith Jesch

Scandinavian Writing after the Viking Age

•An explosion of written composition occurs once the Viking Age has ended, Scandinavia and its colonies have been Christianised, and the use of Latin script has become generalised.

•Law codes (as we’ve seen) •Religious texts (sermons, psalms, etc.) •Mythological and grammatical texts •Histories •Sagas

Histories •Two “superstars” in this field:

•Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), Danish historian and political advisor.

•Writes his Gesta Danorum, “Deeds of the Danes”, a history of Denmark and its wider Scandinavian context up until his day, in Latin. •Very nearly contemporary of the Viking Age. •Even he sings the praises of Icelandic lore, both written and oral, in the preservation of the common Scandinavian heritage.

Histories •Two “superstars” in this field:

•Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241). Icelandic aristocrat, political leader, twice elected Lawspeaker, grammarian, historian, author and antiquarian. •There’s nothing cool that this guy doesn’t do. AND he’s super rich. •We’ll look at some of his other work later, but in terms of history, he writes Heimskringla, the “History of the Kings of Norway”, an extremely important compilation of historical and mythological material.